Every Story has a Twist
'Every Story has a Twist '''is a post- Evergreen fanfic by a person Prologue “Can you believe it?” “I can’t believe she’d do such a thing!” “Three cats! if that murderer stays in Thunderclan any longer, we’ll drive her out for them.” It was that night. The night of the gathering. Tonight was my last chance. My last chance to leave, before I would be murdered. Well, not murdered. But punished. Punished for something I never did. I don’t blame them for choosing me. Every time, the cat who appeared- me. If I’d seen the last moment, I’d have chosen me. The first time, it wasn’t so bad. The first time they still saw me as one of the innocent. When Sedgedawn was murdered, there were a lot of cats around. Same with the second. It was the third that had done it. Rooktalon had seen me, seen me standing over Lilydusk’s body, with blood on my paws. Over the body of the Clan leader’s mate. But he didn’t know where the blood on my paws was from. He didn’t know what had happened with the dark brown tom, like with the previous two. He didn’t know that he had sat on top of me, blocking me from view. He didn’t know that I was the one who was attacked. That I was the one who had bled out half her life on the floor. Except LIlydawn had bled out all. Naturally, when we got back, my mother immediately blamed me. So much for motherly love. That’s where half my scars come from. The rest are from Mapleshade. “She did it!” those were her exact words. “No other cat would have a murderer’s heart!” Really? I wouldn’t put it past her to murder me if she got the chance. She never liked me. Not even before she convinced herself that I had murdered my littermates and crippled Dusklight. And she did have a chance. Tonight. Mapleshade always told me never to go soft on my shorter paw. Thanks to her no one notices. And thanks to her I get sliced open every night. Not that I’m complaining. “It’s a small payment,” she had said, “For what you’ve learnt with me.” True. She had taught me more than my own mentor. All he did was reteach me how to hunt, which I had known since I was four moons old. But that doesn’t stop me from disliking her. Don’t get me wrong. Mapleshade is an amazing teacher, if you call it teaching. And she is the reason I’m still alive. I don’t hate her. But every time my mother Suncloud looks at my cuts and scratches from that nights training, there’s this look of hunger and strange satisfaction, as though she wishes she were the one tearing me up. I don’t complain. I deserve it. I’m always too soft, that’s what Mapleshade always tells me. She says suffering will make me a true warrior, stronger than ever before. And that includes not telling anyone that I didn’t do it. That I was innocent of those crimes. And last might, she told me tonight would be my last chance to escape. That Birchstar was going to tell the clans. About me. And that I had to slip away. very, very soon. “cats of the clans!” that was Shadowclan’s leader, Crowstar. Time was running out. scenebreak My heart was still pounding. The run from the island had taken much longer than I had thought. Naturally, no one noticed. Of course not. They didn’t even want to look at me. Now, I was far, far away. It was almost dawn now, I was in unfamiliar territory, and certain that someone was watching me. Someone that wasn’t Mapleshade. Chapter 1 flower’s POV(not the same as the prologue. I’ll leave it to you guys to decide who she is) I stood guard outside. As usual. What is the use of being a guard if all you do is stand round doing nothing? I thought. Of course, Guards did have much better jobs. Not me. Why? It’s because I’m a she-cat. Guards are the strongest survivors of their circle, apart from the leader and their successor. Usually there’s three. Sometimes there’s only two. They must never have been one of the perishers, one of those likely to die. Oh, and they must be toms. But of course, there are exceptions. Take Aloe for an example. When she was a survivor- one of the topmost ones- she ate a poisoned rabbit. She never told anyone, until the leader Ringo found out and lowered her to a perisher. But even without a healer she pulled through. She survived. She was made the first she-cat guard. She died many moons ago. She is a legend. In the Syndicate we don’t have healers. Here, only the strong survive. I am one of them. That’s why my sister Moon left. She was too soft. Too pretty. She couldn’t stand life here. I could. I knew they wanted to laugh at me. They said I was just as pretty as Moon. That I would be just as useless. But I know it’s not just because of that. It’s my name. My stupid, stupid name. You want to know? It’s Flower. The most stupid name ever. Oh sure, it’s pretty. But here prettiness gets you nowhere. Swift always told me that some day I won’t be known for prettiness. She says I’m not as useless as Moon. I never told her that I didn’t think Moon was useless. Swift is my mentor. She’s dead, but she came back for revenge. And I’m going to be part of it. No one else apart from us know that she’s back. I had a second mentor. His name was Nightshade. He barely taught me anything. I knew the ways of the Syndicate from my friends. I knew how to hunt before I joined. As for fighting… He was useless at it. To Swift at least. I became the second Aloe. One night in training Swift had cut me open too far. I was sent down to a perisher by Scorpion, the leader. But Like Aloe I survived. And I became the second she-cat guard. And now as a guard of the fourth circle, I watched the other two guards bring back the new prisoner. Not prisoner, I reminded myself. New member. A new member was coming to the fourth circle. She was dark gray. Not dark enough to be black, but still lighter than silver. Her eyes were a luminous green. And there were scars- scars like mine. Scars that came from brutal training, from millions of failures, from hatred, and from neglection. But most of all- they were from survival. Chapter 2 Every Story has a twist( previously unnamed story) Chapter 2 Flower's POV I asked Stone who she was. He said nothing. I knew he was ignoring me on purpose. "Stone, what's past is past. You don't have to hate me up to you won't give me any information." I said. "I don't hate you," he growls. "I just don't trust you." Of course he wouldn't trust me. Of all the cats in the 4th circle, Stone was the one who remembers. He never forgives anyone. Especially if they'd done what I did. "You were never my kits." Fern had said. A moon after joining the syndicate, I demanded her to tell us- me and moon- who our real mother was. She probably guessed that I'd found out. "Silver never abandoned you. I stole you from her." she choked out. "It was the middle of leaf-bare. Your father- Silver loved him too. And it hurt her to raise the kits of another. Especially the kits of his mate. But Silver never wanted kits. So I took you. I took you, and I fed her deathberries." I started at this, but I managed to hide my shock." "Get to the point." I growled. "''Who was our mother?" "Her name was Nightwillow. She was beautiful. I killed her, too." Those were the last words she ever said as I registered what she told me. She was a murderer. The cat who'd raised me- a murderer. And I killed her. That night, I crept into her nest. I slit her throat. And I regretted nothing. No one knew I did it. No one suspected me. All but Stone. Since Stone wouldn't tell me, I padded over to her. She was in a nest in the newcomer's den. It was cramped enough without me inside, so I stayed out. "You can take over now, Flower." mutters Pine, who had been guarding her before. Without waiting for a reply, he stalked out. And I was stuck inside. Her eyes were open. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking. Her eyes were too blank. I decided to take this friendlier. I guessed Pine and Stone had been acting tough- or intimidating, as Pine had insisted. Whatever they'd had done, it worked. "What's your name?" I asked. "You don't want to know." she muttered back. "Really? Then you really don't want to know my name." I said. "It's stupid." "Go on." she said. "If you really want to." I muttered to myself. "It's Flower." "It's a pretty name." "Yeah? Well in case you haven't noticed, prettiness gets you nowhere. Especially here. My sister, she left. She was too soft. Too pretty. Here, it's all about survival. Only the strong survive. It's why we don't have healers." "Do you really believe that?" She asked. "Are you sure it's not all about the leaders? All about battle?" I winced. "The syndicate used to be about survival. It used to be fair. But seasons and seasons ago a cat named Frost took over. He made it so we didn't have healers. He made it so that perishers were left to die. His followers have been in power for ages." "What's a perisher?" "Someone likely to die. Cats that are crippled, blind, or deaf. Kits too young to be trained. Old cats who have lost their skill. Cats that have been injured in battle. And sick cats. When someone- a survivor or a guard- becomes a perisher they have to survive by themselves. Of course, those close to Yew- he's the overall leader of every circle- get help from cats who know how to heal. They're too important to lose." "Have you ever been one?" "Once. I was in a fight with a clan cat. It was a long cut. Deep. But I survived. Without a healer. That's how I became a guard. They're usually cats close to Yew. But if someones particularly good at fighting, or is very good at surviving he might be made one. And they must be a tom." "Are you the first she-cat guard?" I shook my head. "No. There was a cat- named Aloe- who also was a guard. She died, seasons ago." She yawned. I guessed she was worn out from the shock Pine and Stone had given her. "I'll go, if you want." I offered. She nodded. I turned to leave when I remembered something. "I haven't asked you your name yet." "You don't want to know. Especially because you've fought with a clan cat. Because I am one of them. My name is Darkstream. I'm from Thunderclan." Chapter 3 Darkstream’s PoV ( this is probably my worst chapter so far. Capitals replace italics because I don’t know how) Midnight. The wind howled outside the newcomer’s den just under the large hazel tree on the far side of the 4th circle camp. No one seemed to be awake. No one seemed to hear the whispers from the guard’s den. No one seemed to be aware there was some cat in trouble. No one except for me. Flower. Was she ok? I thought. I knew Flower was a guard. Would it be her? I wouldn’t be allowed in there, not in the guard’s den. I would be thrown out of the syndicate. I would be discarded. But I didn’t care about that. Not just now. I’d already ran once. I’d already been thrown out. I could do it again. I crept under a low-lying branch of the tree above and stalked her way across the camp. I could hear the whispers more clearly now, with groans in between pauses. Better stay low, or whoever’s in there would see me, I thought as I stopped just outside the entrance. Now I was close enough, I could hear that the whispers were in fact hisses of pain. Whoever was in there would be in a lot of pain, and I sincerely hoped it wasn’t Flower. But it was. She was thrashing in her nest. Thrashing like a fish under a cat’s claws. Her fur was darker and clumped. The den stank of something sour I couldn’t distinguish. i ignored it and headed over to where she was, careful not to tread on one of the others. She’s just dreaming, I told myself. She’s just dreaming. Though I knew it could be a lot worse than that. I prodded her with one paw. “Flower?” I whispered. Flower gasped. “Darkstream, you shouldn’t be here.” she hissed between gritted teeth. “What if Moss or Wave had caught you?” I didn’t know who Moss or Wave were, but I was fairly sure that they were the two that guarded the newcomers’ den and the guards’ den. “They’re asleep. And I was worried about you. I could hear you from over there.” I pointed towards the newcomers’ den. “You’ve got sharp hearing, then.” croaked Flower. “I’m telling you, before when this happened no one ever noti- ” her words ended in a failed attempt to stifle a moan. This had happened before? I wondered just how many times Flower had experienced pains like this, or worse ones. She probably did a really good job of hiding them, seeing as she hadn’t been banished yet. “Flower, how exactly-” “I don’t know how it happened. It probably was just-” she moaned again- “Just crowfood.” “You eat crowfood?!” I couldn’t help feeling surprised. Surely as a guard Flower would get to eat better than that. “I told you, I-” another groan- “I’m a she-cat. The perishers at least get to eat leftovers that are fresh. The survivors eat part of what they hunt, and only the runty pieces. The best ones go to the leader and the successor and the high-ranked survivors. Oh and the guards.” “So why don’t you-” “''listen''.” her voice was a breathless croak now. She must be fighting so hard to stop groaning and stay awake. “To Yew and the others, A she-cat who became a guard is worse then the bottommost perisher. They think I thwarted them, that I scorned them. Nightshade, the former leader who appointed me guard, he was killed. In front of everyone. By his successor Scorpion.” “So you’ve had pains like this before?” “Obviously. But this one-” she let out a gasp of pain – “isn’t like the others.” “It’s worse?” “Not- well it is. But this one goes deeper in. It shakes the whole of you up. It haunts your dreams. Each cramp lasts longer, and it doesn’t go away. I’ve heard of this before, and only comes with poisoned twolegplace rats that have been left to rot. So you have the effects of both the crowfood and the poison. It’s all I can do to stay awake.” “Why don’t you just give up? If you hate it so much, why don’t you just stop pretending you’re ok? Why suffer so much?” “Because I deserve it. I killed my mother, Darkstream. So I deserve this pain.” A/N I’ve been waiting to write this part for a long time. I chose Darkstream for the PoV because I find it easier to write about pain in third person but that’s probably just me. :p Chapter 4 may or may not be delayed due to evergreen being released, but I can’t say. I might actually delay chapter four to write chapter 2 of Evergreen, but it depends on if I can think of anything to write. Still accepting rogue/loner versions of fursonas for both this story and for Evergreen and someone to help me with those two and also Life in Foodclan Chapter 4 Darkstream's PoV Three sunrises since I had left Flower that night, and she was already back on patrols. I still visited her every night. She told me not to. She said eventually someone would detect my scent I told her not to worry. She told me not to say that. "Here, you always have to worry about something or the other." she had said. True. If it wasn't the leader of the circle, Nightshade, yelling at you, telling you to hurry up, then it was Beetle, his successor, telling you to stop being so pathetic and hurry up. Or it was worrying about if you would ever be allowed to eat what you catch, or if the snakes from the best hunting places were gone, or if someone found out about the wounds you had from that badger fight...... Last night I asked her if she would run away if she had the chance "Maybe, " she had said. Then I asked if she would want to run away now. "Maybe." she said again. I hoped she considered it. Being a runaway was hundreds of times better than where we are now. I asked her again this morning. She said she would. She said we could try it tonight She said we might try and escape tonight. She said we would. And I couldn't wait for anything else to happen today. "Hunting! Cypress, Maple, Wave, take Shadow with you, and do a sweep-through of the sun-rise forest!" Beetle called. "And mind you, come back loaded and be quick about it!" yeah right. Since when did toms ever work hard? It was always the she-cats he ordered around. They never did sweep-throughs, or hunted through the sunrise forest. They always went to the prey-rich ones. Also- A sweep-through was when we hunted all the way through one section of the territory. The sunrise forest was the forest that was lit up at dawn. Oh, and did I mention that my new name was Shadow? Flower still called me Darkstream. "I'd never get used to it." she said. "When I meet a cat, I call them by what I know them as. And I know you as Darkstream." "Come on." growled Cypress. "We better move on. Or do you want to stand here daydreaming?" I glared at her. She just lashed her tail, and stalked into the woods, with us trailing behind her. On the way to the hunting grounds, I got to know then rest of the patrol. Maple, a dark ginger she-cat, was easily the smallest. She was barely 11 moons, and had just become a survivor. Wave was Cypress's littermate, though she looked nothing like her. Wave was silver tabby, with white paws and tail-tip, while Cypress was a lean brown and white. All they shared was the green eyes. She told me that when they were kits, Cypress got caught in a twoleg rabbit trap, and their mother ended up dying saving her from a fox. Cypress didn't take it well. "She's been touchy about it ever since," Wave whispered. "I don't think she's ever laughed or smiled, except around Branch, maybe." "Branch? What about him?" "You don't know? Those two, they've got a thing going." she giggled nervously. Maple and I laughed. Cypress didn't look at all like the type of cat that would fall for a jittery, depressed cat like Branch, but that wasn't for me to decide. "Stop that laughing, you two." ordered Cypress, without turning her head round. "Do you want to scare off all the prey?" We glanced at each other, then burst into another fit off silent laughter. A/N this chapter turned out a lot longer than I expected. Next chapter, we'll see Moon, and we'll see how successful their runaway turned out. EXPECT MORE DRAMA AND DEATH hope you guys liked it! Chapter 5 Every Story has a Twist chapter 5 Flower's PoV "Flower! Wake up! We're leaving right now!" Darkstream was in the guard's den again. It was around moon-high, and everyone was asleep. Everyone but us. I sat up with a start. "Darkstream, are you sure-" "Of course I'm sure! Flower, you can't stay here, not when they treat you like that! There's too much to worry about here. No, we'll go and find a place for ourselves." Darkstream looked like she had her heart set on it, and secretly, mine was too. "Alright." I sighed and padded outside. "but if we get caught, the blame's on you." "It's for the best." Darkstream glanced around. "Let's go." We were barely out of the fourth circle camp when we heard someone following us. I turned around sharply. The cat had silver fur, white paws and green eyes that glowed in the dark. Wave. "Wave!" I hissed. "may I ask what exactly are you doing here?" "Um.... following you?" I rolled my eyes. "Wave, we're going to run away. It's not exactly an occupation for a pretty kitty." "Like you're not pretty?" I flinched. Wave, like Moon, always knew what to say. "Wave, seriously, if you're trying to stop us, it's not working. And it never will." Darkstream hissed. "I'm not trying to stop you." Wave mewed. "I- I want to go with you." "You-" I stopped. "Why?" "It's so unfair out here. And Cypress won't leave, she'll worry about Branch too much." "What about Maple?" "She doesn't want to. She says she wants to see what it's really like, being a survivor." "Wave?" A new voice came from one of the survivors' dens. The newcomer was brown and white, with pale green eyes like Wave's. "Cypress! What are you doing here?" hope you guys liked it! also give me suggestions for whose PoV you want to see next.Category:Fanfiction Category:In progress Category:Chronicles of Chaos series Category:Story of Secrets series